The Night He Couldn't Breath
by Sambev
Summary: Title didn't quite work out... A quicky drabble I thought I'd share.


**(AN: Don't get excited! I was just rereading and thought I might as well fix typos as well.**

**His heart was beating too fast.**

**Artie didn't think it could continue heaving itself against his chest like that much longer before it simply stopped. Somewhere in his minds eye he saw himself simply slipping off his horse into the mud, dead from fright. What an embarrassing end that would be especially with so much at stake. Shuddering somewhat at the very thought, Artie urged his horse ahead faster.**

**The horse, the poor beast, was never meant to be used for such a maddeningly abusive race. Yet, as much as he wanted to stop and try and find his way back his people, nice people who only used him for small trips during nice weather and always fed him oats, he was afraid of the man now riding him. The man made a small sound as if he couldn't breath and whipped the reins.**

**It started to rain so suddenly and violently if was as if the horse and rider had suddenly been submerged. Artie shook his head and leaned forward. It was impossible to see, and the wet locks of hair sticking into his eyes didn't help. His leather jacket became soaked with water and clung to his skin, crushing him, suffocating him.**

**Artie just wanted this moment to be over. That's the only thing he wanted and could ever remember having wanted. He wanted to believe it wasn't real. The adrenaline was pumping so hard through his system everything down to his teeth throbbed and he knew he couldn't be dreaming that kind of torture.**

**There.**

**Leafless cotton trees did nothing to shield the tombstones beneath it from the rain. Artie fell out of the saddle, weighed down by his wet cloths, but was up in an instant and pulling himself over the wooden fence. The frothing horse who had aided him was forgotten.**

**He stopped on the other side and looked over the rows of tombstones. The rain, God he hated the rain, smothered everything. Artie was looking for fresh dirt and saw none. He suddenly remembered someone, although his mind drew no face, telling him where to find Mountain View cemetery. Had the person meant to say there was more than one?**

**Nausea swept over his so fast his knees felt weak. Then he realized the only thing he could hear was his own breathing and his own thoughts. Panic attack. He was having a panic attack. He was wasting time, he was useless, he was too slow, he was...**

**His eyes caught on the mound. The dirt was no more dark or fresh looking than anywhere else but it was heaped and hasty. Artie ran towards it, nearly tripping. Like a nightmare he felt like he was getting further away until he had collapsed onto it. It was a fresh unmarked grave but the rain had ruined any other clue that Artie needed to tell him he was at the right spot.**

**He would have to trust his intuition, and right then it was screaming at him so loudly he visibly shook. His mind was threatening him and punishing him for wasting even a few seconds looking for something he could dig with when there was nothing.**

**Using his hands Artie started scooping the mud and tossing it as far to the side as he could. The rain never ceased and even dared to turn into a half snow that drizzled into the slowly growing hole forming beneath him. For an instant he felt like he was looking down at his own pathetically soaked and trembling form with the dark hair plastered against his head. Watching himself struggle to keep the mud walls from collapsing and ruining his progress while he sank down into the dirt, that grave, in a desperate search. Then his hands struck wood.**

**A shocked and relieved cry escaped him, he couldn't help it, as soon as he felt the casket top under his fingers. These murderers had been lazy or in a hurry because Artie had only dug a few feet, but he wasn't complaining. Then there was a noise that made Artie's heart stop and goose bumps shoot up his arms. It came from beneath him very faintly, very weak, and was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain beating against the wood.**

**Artie started clawing and scraping the mud away until the lid to the casket was exposed. He pried at the wood looking for a weak point. He didn't notice the way his hands bled or his breath hitched and barely managed to leave his chest. There was the small noise again, like finger nails against wood. It was a plea.**

**He could have cried, running his hands along the edges and cursing himself for not bringing a knife, and he wanted to cry but he'd gone numb. Desperate, Artie drove his elbow into the middle plank, hoping the box was as hastily made as the hole it was buried in. It didn't even move until the fifth time, and by the tenth the board groaned and cracked. Artie grabbed the splintered board and wrenched it free and peered in. The figure inside wasn't moving.**

**He couldn't find his voice to call out, to ask, but he wasn't sure he could bear it if there was no answer. Instead he began pulling the planks away, forcing the nails to pull loose and tossing them up and out of the hole. He heard breathing, but wasn't sure if it was his own or not.**

**When he was finally looking at his partner again he felt himself being pulled away and was looking down at himself self again as well, but he forced himself to focus. He had to look at the chest, in the blue bolero that was beginning to soak through with rain, and see that it was still just barely moving. He had to look at the face, the pale pale face, and see the eye lids flicker as half frozen rain dripped on to them.**

**Jim? Artie wasn't sure if he had actually spoken out loud, but it seemed at if he had. The green eyes slid open, half glazed, and looked almost annoyed. Artie leaned in when his partner opened his mouth to speak. "You look like hell Artie." Then the younger man smiled somewhat crookedly from exhaustion.**

**Artie didn't return the smile, but dropped his face into his hands and trembled. Jim tried to sit up, worried about his partner despite his own near death, but found he couldn't. Then, after a few moments of worrying he realized his partner was laughing and relaxed. The rain on his face felt like heaven and he took deep breaths now that he was finally able to.**


End file.
